BRAF / MEK combo - what then??

Posted By

Anonymous

4/4/2014 2:54pm

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Replies: 2

Hi,

I have been diagnosed with stage IV melanoma with mets on liver / lungs, etc. 8 weeks ago and I am now taking GSK'S combo. The doctor said Ipi was not an option as it is not clear wether I would respond at all and if I did on time to survive. Initial response could take up to 4 months.

Now I am reading that there are patients for whom the combo still works fine after 3 years, for others it stopped working after 5 months. The abarage according to a trial being 10.5 months.

I also understand that after discontinuing the combo about 50% show a rapid progress of their desease, in 50% cancer growth seems to be stopped or very slow.

Now I am kind of worried that I might run into the same problem in a few months again (of course I am praying and hoping for the better outcome) that Ipi may be too slow to help!

I hope they extend compassionate care for PD1 to Europe soon so I have a chance.

Does any of you have any other ideas what could be possible options after BRAF / MEK? I also heard that there are trials of PD1 and / or Ipi together with BRAF / MEK or discontinuing BRAF / MEK rather during a time when it works well and switching to other drugs instead of waiting until the melanoma is already spreading again.

Does any of you have experience with such a situation and knows of any soutions? Is IL-2 still an option?

Sorry you are dealing with all of this. As you noted lots of folks are having responses that last longer, with fewer side effects than with BRAF alone. Recently, I posted a review of BRAF inhibitors with multiple articles addressing a variety of issues. One portion relates two articles specifically discussing how to deal with tumor work-around. The link is below. Hope it helps. Yours, Celeste